Musical affinities in four chapters: this could be the subtitle for the third performance of the Collegium Novum Zurich in IDAGIO’s Global Concert Hall. The highlight of this dazzling concert programme full of intuitively perceptible cross-references is the world premiere of Himmel by the young Swedish composer Lisa Streich: an atmospheric work of fragile beauty.

More than 100 years ago, when the rules of well-trodden tonality collapsed, Claude Debussy broke new ground. He felt academic conventions to be burdensome fetters, and yet his music draws its strength from tradition. His Images for piano, which are not so much a cycle as three separate imaginative sound pictures, run through the concert like intermezzi between contemporary masterpieces by Lisa Streich, Pierre Boulez and György Ligeti. The fascinating thing about the montage-like interweaving of the works is that one can perceive the familiar in a new light, whereas the new might turn out to be already known. The moderated concert also features a short film portrait about Lisa Streich (during the interval) – an intimate glimpse into the composer's workshop.
At the beginning of the concert, Jean-Philippe Rameau will be honoured with two contemporary harpsichord pieces by Gérard Pesson. Rameau, French composer of the Ancien Régime, was also Debussy's spiritual godfather, as can be heard in the middle movement of his ingenious late style Sonata for flute, viola and harp. A concert full of varied music – without homesickness for lost paradise, but radically present-orientated!

Live from the Tonhalle Maag Zurich.